Respect for parents increases as teens turn to twenties

Published 7:00 pm, Saturday, March 14, 2009

As I pleasantly mulled over what to write my column about, my mother and father gave me an idea. They suggested I should write about them.

My initial thought was, no thank you. But then I remembered my birthday is coming up in a month, and this would be a perfect opportunity to suck up to them for a really good present.

Of course, I would never resort to such trickery, and I could never just flat out ask for a new Coach purse or a gift card to one of my favorite stores like the Express. I'm just not that kind of girl.

My parents would never fall for it anyway. They're way too intelligent, levelheaded, sweet, and not to mention, good-looking for me to take advantage of them.

It's true, my parents are, "the best parents in the whole wide world." When I told my mom I was going to quote her saying that, she then said, "Isn't it supposed to be the parents' job to embarrass the child?"

I told her, "Lady, the tables have turned."

And as I get older, they continue to turn. Something scary happens when you're in your 20s. You start to become more like your parents. We pick up habits, attitudes and mannerisms from our parents. Some of us begin to look more like them too; that is, unless you are adopted from another country, which I happen to be. I look more like a foreign exchange student than my parents' daughter.

As an adult, my values and ideas have started to resemble those of my parents. I spent much of my teenage years rebelling against them and trying to assert my independence by expressing my individuality. In other words, I acted like a typical teenager and looking back, I realize I could have avoided a lot of trouble if I had just listened to my mother.

All of the teenagers of the world are cringing at that last statement.

Despite popular belief among young people, parents sometimes know what they're talking about, and they can actually have pretty good advice. After all, with age comes wisdom.

I like to think that as I get older I also get wiser, which makes me more like my parents.

Had I possessed such wisdom during my youth, I would not have made some of the same decisions, and I certainly would not have dated the same guys. But of course, it's taken years of experience and years of becoming more like my parents to realize that.

As a teenager, I disregarded much of my parents' advice and ignored the rest. As an adult, I find that my parents' ideas and advice are not only helpful, but I no longer feel the need to do the complete opposite of what they suggest. So, if they think I should write a column about them, then I think that might not be such a bad idea.

My respect for my parents has grown over the years, and if I'm becoming a little more like them, then I'm perfectly OK with that.